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An hour at home with

MEREDITH AND CHRIS

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It’s celebrating Cherry Tree season. It’s a bath full of bubbles and toddlers. It’s uncorking a second bottle of wine from the “fancy section” just because it’s a full moon. It’s wearing mama’s shiny shoes and blasting Land of 1000 Dances. It’s all a mess, but it’s happy. It’s all a mess, but it’s our’s.

On a family beach trip, the concept of what Page House could become was invented. I was in the midst of a project for a friend in LA who needed help bringing her casual breakfast area more life. Like a lot of the spaces I worked on while living in California, it didn’t want anything fussy or overwhelming. It just needed something. Something clean, sophisticated, and versatile. I landed on the idea that a grasscloth pedestal would be a perfect element in an awkward, empty corner and began scouring the internet for one. Of course there were exceptionally beautiful versions, but the price tag felt out of reach and, thus, I felt defeated.

With my very tiny daughter sleeping in my lap and a cocktail in my hand, I turned to my dad and decided he may could have a new hobby for his impending retirement. “Sooo, it’s basically a tall box?” He asked after my extraordinarily lengthy description of all that it could be and how it could be done. For the next couple of months, we tinkered with some prototypes, all the while he perfected the details of the construction of the “box,” while I continued to dream up ways to elevate its potential.

That was the summer of 2021, so this dream has been a few years in the making. My dad needed to actually retire. I needed to build a house with my husband, and learn exactly what it’s like to be in the shoes of a client. I also needed some time to figure out how to become a mama, and then later of how to be a mama to two (I’m still a work in progress here). I needed some time to settle into our home as a family and understand how complicated it gets trying to keep up beautiful spaces and have free and happy babies. And I needed my best friend to join me in making this simple shape and notion into something much more dimensional and important. Eventually, it all fell into place and here we are with enough details of life aligned to create a collection of pedestals with a whole world that revolves around it and will continue to expand well beyond that initial proverbial "box" it started as.

Tell us the story of finding your home.

We got married February 29, 2020 in Santa Barbara and followed it with our honeymoon. While the world fell apart, we sipped margaritas on a deserted beach in Bali and prayed we would make it back home. After a few delays, we made it back to LA, and quickly decided our perspectives, like most, had changed on what our future looked like and we did what we hadn’t exactly planned for: packed all of our belongings from our cramped spot in West Hollywood and booked one-way tickets to Atlanta. As fate began its course, our landing spot happened to be in Sandy Springs, which we quickly decided was a bit of a transition from our previous neighborhood where we could walk to the best sushi for a casual bite or a trendy cocktail bar on a whim. But what it offered felt like something possibly even more exciting than having my chic Pilates studio a couple of blocks away: somewhere that offered so much space, in every sense. 

After looking all across the city and striking out with offers for three houses we thought could be decent enough, we decided to build in the very neighborhood that shepherded us back home. The opportunity had been dangling in front of us the whole time, but because we were so ready to be settled, the timeline to proceed in that direction felt daunting. And expensive. And well, there were a million other excuses and reasons to be afraid. But we went for it. It took two years to build and the process coincided with two pregnancies, so I had my fair share of breakdowns, but of course it was all worth it. Every last tear, disagreement, doubt, fear, and penny. Not only did we get our absolute dream home - complete with flaws, and design misses (which I blame the hormones!) - but I learned so much about myself throughout it all. Mostly, how to surrender to what is not our’s to control, which has come more and more a practice to live by. In the end, we have such a great story of how our first family home came to be and that’s what we appreciate above all else.

In February 2023, three years after our wedding, with two young babes, we moved into a nearly immaculate and new house. And it stayed like that for about two hours… That first night I spilt my glass of red wine on the marble island and it’s all been down hill and rolling with the small messes and chaos from there. This home of our’s is as much of a circus as it is a sanctuary, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Our kids are growing, our lives are constantly changing, and there is so much beauty in the house being the keeper of all of these moments.

What's one ritual you do that makes it feel like your space?

Taking a bath each night used to be my thing, but nowadays I get the same sense of comfort sitting on the edge of our tub and watching them splash around together with suds in their hair. Afterwards we cuddle in my bed and watch an episode of Peppa and there is stillness for about… seven minutes. And for seven minutes, I tell myself there is nothing to clean up or cook, it’s time reserved for studying their evolving expressions and listening to their giggles. It’s so simple but those nightly reminds me I’m happier than I could ever imagine

What's one item around the house that you hold especially sacred? 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamt of having a room of bookshelves. Living in LA for so long and bouncing around from one tight apartment to the next, it pained me to know my books were crammed in boxes in closets. Installing the shelves in our study was a true reflection of finally feeling settled, finally feeling at home. My toddlers go grab paperbacks from spots they can reach and then get comfy on the daybed in there and pretend to dig into something super serious like a Milan Kundera novel… which really cracks us up, but has also made the space all the more precious, knowing how happy they are to be surrounded by books. 

Five things you are currently placing on a pedestal?

  1. I Watching Homegrown on Sunday mornings to get inspired to go get dirty in the backyard.
  2. II Overalls
  3. III III. Getting the chance to work with my best friends and share a vision we believe so wholeheartedly in
  4. IV A recent trip to Los Olivos with Chris to reminisce on our early dating days in Cali when we would skip up there on a whim for the weekend. Notable mention: The yellow beets at SY Kitchen are still my all-time favorite dish out
  5. V My daughter, Callaway, constantly asking “Mama, watchu doing?”

SHOP Meredith'S STYLING STAPLES

  • Bessette Pedestal, Saddle
  • Merino Pillows, Set of 2
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